Why was HMS Hood special?

[Northern_Piper]

Previous thread on topic:

Why was the Hood so Mighty? and what happened to the Graf Zeppelin?

I’m reading Bercuson and Herwig’s book, The Destruction of the Bismarck and I had a couple of questions about that naval period I thought I’d ask of the Dope. First, the Hood. There seems to be general agreement that as a batle cruiser, H.M.S. Hood wasn’t supposed to go toe-to-toe with a full-bore battleship. So why was it nicknamed “The Mighty Hood”? It seems to have had a considerable reputation - it’s referred to as the pride of the Royal Navy, a major symbol of the British Empire, etc. …